After a long spell of tough posturing from both the sides, the Congress and Trinamul Congress on Monday struck a seat-sharing deal for the West Bengal Assembly elections, with the former agreeing to contest 65 seats out of the total 294 seats. The six-phase election in the state begins on April 18.
While the Congress had initially demanded 98 seats, though later scaling it down to 70, the Trinamul Congress had said late last week it was not ready to part with more than 64 seats. The deal could be announced on Monday only after Congress president Sonia Gandhi returned home from London and held a long meeting with senior party colleague and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who later had a telephonic chat with Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee.
Announcing the deal here on Monday afternoon, AICC in-charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed told reporters: “The Congress has entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the Trinamul Congress for the West Bengal Assembly polls. We expect the alliance will give a chance to the people of the state to end the misrule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front.”
Under the agreement, the Congress will contest from 65 seats while the Trinamul Congress will contest 229 seats, Mr Ahmed said. The Congress had initially sought 98 seats, then revised this downward to 90, then 75 and finally dropped it to 70 seats. The Trinamul Congress, which had initially said it would give 45 seats, later raised this to 58, then 60 seats over several rounds of negotiations, and finally offered 64 seats.
The flashpoint came on Friday last, when after waiting a few days for the Congress to come to a decision, the Trinamul Congress went ahead and unilaterally declared that it would contest 228 seats, leaving 64 for the Congress and two for its SUCI ally, saying that it could not wait endlessly.
Refusing to buy the argument that the Congress had been forced to succumb to Trinamul pressure and settle for just 65 seats, Mr Ahmed said: “There is no question of compromise or surrender when two parties agree to a negotiated settlement. All should honour it.”
Justifying the hard bargain ahead of the settlement, the Congress leader said: “Every party wants to contest as many seats as possible, but when they sit at the negotiating table, they arrive at a mutually agreed number.”
West Bengal PCC chief Manas Bhuniya, who was also present at the press conference, did not respond to questions on whether the local Congress unit was satisfied with the deal. Mr Bhuniya had earlier given the Congress high command a list of 98 seats which it had wanted to contest. “Ours is a national party and I am the PCC chief of Bengal. I had communicated the views of my people to the party high command. Now a decision has been taken by the central leadership; the West Bengal party will abide by that,” he said, but did not give a direct answer to the question on whether the deal was a success for the Congress.
When asked which additional seat had been given to the Congress from the list earlier announced by Ms Banerjee, Mr Ahmed said this was a matter for “second-phase” negotiations. “We will be able to announce specific seats in a day or two,” he said.
Sources in the party said, however, that the 65th seat was Canning East in the Sunderbans. “One adjustment has also taken place. In place of Jamuria, the TMC has given Fanshidabad to the Congress, and the rest remain the same as announced earlier by the senior partner in the alliance,” the sources added.